Archive for October, 2008

It has a pulse… Is Project Abraham back? Is the AAA alive and kicking?

The Alliance for American Autonomy left us over a month and a half ago, having gone underground after being discovered by the government. But there was also a fax-like machine left where the ‘Tip Box’ used to be. Now… the “waiting” light has a pulse.

Well, you know, we all want to change the world. But this revolution is within crisis having been forced underground, and will be untelevised.

An email was received the other day (seriously, email is like an emergency help-me hotline) from revolution8308@aol.com containing a strange strings of ones and zeros secret binary message, that decrypts to:

I hope you get this meSsage. I’ve been floating for weeks without an anchor, and I finally had To make my own home on Jesse’s old webpage, therevolutionuntelevised.blogspot.com. I fear that AnarchY follows you where ever you go, but that Is far beyoNd the point.
Please tell my SIster, Do not worry about mE. I can TrutHfully fEnd for mYself. These ARE hard times, my faithful COMpanIoN.
I need to Go. Please respond quickly.

An astute obsserver would notice the capitals, which eerily spell out: “STAY INSIDE THEY ARE COMING”. Spooky…

From here, we’re led two directions – the link in the message is to a blog, therevolutionuntelevised, containing (at the time of writing) a single entry transmission by “J.A.”, expressing hope that it’s being read. That is all. Well, actually he commented after posting, saying:

If you want to help, Try finding eitHEr Finn or AllY. Those two ARE probably your best bet. But Don’t even try Arguing with AllisoN, she’ll GEt youR brain in a knOt. Her and Us UndergrounderS, we like codes.

Codes, like messages in capitals… hey speaking of capitals, there’s a bunch here, once again spelling out “THEY ARE DANGEROUS”. …Who is “They”? They are coming, and They are dangerous! I seem to recall a documentary in theatres recently on these “They” people.

Second, a quick google of the email address also leads to another top secret public blog – revolutionwthincrisis, containing another transmssion #1, but this is from the U.N.D.E.R.G.R.O.U.N.D., labeled S.T.A.G.E. 1:

EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION 1:
Havenwood is collapsing around us. We’ve been forced underground by Stephen and his allies. If you’re recieving this, assistance is required. Repeat, this is a distress call. Assistance is required.

Well, after responding to revolutions8308, Esteed received another transmission:

Oh, thank goodness for human contact, even if it’s not Finn. You can call me J. I was…how should I say this…separated from my sister Hana and my host body (who we’ll call A.) about a week ago. I’ve been wandering in confusion ever since, trying to make contact without the other side knowing. I can’t tell you everything about them now, but be wary of a man called Stephen. HE IS DANGEROUS. FIND FINN AND ALLISON IF YOU CAN. THEY CAN HELP.

This message will self-destruct in 30 seconds. Not really. But it should. That would be cool for an email.

(note: this article’s contents are updated regularly as new findings are reported)Last Update: (Nov 25, 9:40amET)

AKQA is at it again. This time, They’ve created an online viral for Gears Of War 2 – following a similar experience as Halo 3′s Believe campaign, their GOW promo site flies through a disaster zone, providing glimpses into the story, characters, and dramatic events from the GOW universe – in the form of videos, images, and audio clips.

They’ve also incorporate the community viral trick in that various members of the gaming and blogging community (from individual forum members to Wired) have received packages in the mail – large, heavy, COG gears – each labeled with a unique code to enter on the viral site.

Once entered, a special ‘easter egg’ asset is unlocked, and certain ‘stops’ in the fly-through become unlocked. As expected, Gears communities are abuzz with these findings.

I’ve gone searching for the CSID codes myself, and have them listed them below, with the sources as best I can determine (I will try to keep the list updated!). Go check out the viral site at gearsofwar.xbox.com/lastday and try the codes!

sixokay has also been posting images of the received COG Gears on flickr (click here)

UPDATE: It appears that GPS coordinates are now showing up throughout the interface. A number have been found and listed in the official Gears of War forum (listed below). Reports are that real-world COG gears need to be found at these locations to unlock special content on the promo site.

UPDATE:xlRagnarlx reports at epicgames that he and Guy The Ace found and unlocked the COG tag located in Budapest. His CSID unlocked the first ‘tab’ on the promo site. Tabs 2, 3, and 12 were previously unlocked by other people, but xlRagnarlx is the first to report on his findings.

The Alternate Reality Gaming genre has remained virtually untouched by mainstream / contemporary Christianity, it seems. This doesn’t include, however, the trendy use of Bible verses that show up almost commonplace for poetic purposes, spiritual themes, emphasis of good vs evil, etc. It’s a time-honoured tradition found in movies, tv, video games, books, and virtually any creative medium in use today, wihout necessarily being religious in nature. So to have a Christian ARG - not a mock piece, not satirical (as opposed to religion, that is) – but an ARG built/sponsored by Christians, in an overwhelmingly secular entertainment/marketing genre, is rare.

Recently, Christian author Ted Dekker promoted his book series the Lost Books of History with a well-produced ARG. It attracted flocks of Dekker fans to the in-game forums and to Ted’s own forums, gained some new fans (such as yours truly, who ended up purchasing the books) and in the end a final gathering was enjoyed by many fans.

Another campaign for a youth event got off to a rocky start – “Everything is going to change” was the catch phrase, and their attempt to gain attention for their website via youtube videos tagged with popular ARG phrases and names, earned it a fairly bad reputation from the start in the ARG community, as if it were attempting to ‘piggy-back’ off the popularity of other games.

Today, a new controversy has opened to the public. But this one’s a bit different…after a little digging.

When the trailhead was first posted at Unfiction, I was very, very skeptical. Citizens of Virtue claims to be a Christian organization that is beginning a campaign to “educate the world on God-sanctioned morality”, based on the “classic seven virtues”: Temperance, Patience, Chastity, Kindness, Humility, Diligence, and Charity. That’s not too bad given the context. But after reading more detail on the website, such as their convictions, written letters, their accomplishments, etc, the organization comes off more and more as a ‘right wing’ conservative organization – one that isn’t typically viewed very highly in the public’s eyes, with some shady goings-on behind the scenes.

“CoV” is also the maker of a drug they’ve named “Passionix” – “the innovative new solution to the passions that can override the judgment of our youth and lead them into temptation.” (a product eerily reminiscent of another recent local ‘drug’ campaign called “Obay“).

CoV also runs a camp called Camp Francis. All seems well and good, if it weren’t for some worrisome / possibly satirical letters and content from past campers.